Selling AI: U.S. Government As A Vendor To The World

This is an interesting and unusual one. There’s so much talk in the tech media right now about global outcomes, about a potential slowdown, and conflicting ideas on the future. But what about the day to day bartering that goes on between companies – and nations? What about a national government getting involved in how the private sector of the nation sells AI to other world governments?

For a little of that, we can turn to an interview that took place at the Imagination in Action event The Next Endeavor in Mountain View, CA, in September. (Disclaimer: With Imagination in Action, I help to put on these events.) This was a ground-breaking event, and very relevant to what we are all, techies and otherwise, facing right now. It’s a moment of great interest (often expressed as fear) and a time for introspection. So it was good to get a little inside scoop from Brandon Remington, the Executive Director of the U.S. National AI Center, who was interviewed by Nico Enriquez, Principal at Future Ventures, about this.

What it Looks Like

First, Remington noted that this is a big job, since effectively, the landscape is the entire world.

“How do you begin to sort that into something tangible and useful?” Remington asked rhetorically.

One piece of the puzzle is the technology stack. In response to Enriquez’s questions, Remington noted that the stacks are defined, and there’s some order to the ordering process. Enriquez asked about potential conflict between a corporation’s interest and the interest of the government, and about safety in general.

“Where something is dangerous, then we put in certain restrictions,” Remington said. “Where it’s dangerous to everybody, we put in more. Where it’s dangerous in only certain actors’ hands, we put in (guardrails) there, and we just try to scope it. Now, AI in particular, as we all know, is moving so fast, and the technology is changing, the understanding is changing. So it’s very much a continuous, almost daily process to get that right.”